I asked my fabulous graphic designers, Kate and Kevin from Dresser Johnson, if they’d share a bit about the utterly breathtaking logo they made for Lagusta’s Luscious. I knew they’d have some bits of brilliance to share, and here they are:

I'm forever grateful to K+K for digitally fixing my posture!

About the Lagusta’s Luscious Logo:

Lagusta’s chocolate is not just a dessert, it has a powerful voice. A chocolatier that chooses to use local, fair-trade, and vegan ingredients with inspiration by noted feminist activists is making a political statement.

Our goal as graphic designers is to make work that is original and as best as we can, timeless. A necessary ingredient of this logo was to capture Lagusta’s bold personality and feminist stance. We thought that a Victorian-era cameo would be a wonderful style to draw Lagusta’s portrait. There is an optical illusion within the silhouette that speaks volumes about Lagusta’s personality. Once you discover it, you will never see artwork as you did upon first glance. Finally, we paired our own custom Art Deco-inspired lettering to capture Lagusta’s love of all things vintage. In the end, we are left with a mark that is scrumptious and sophisticated like the hand-crafted chocolate.

Kevin Dresser and Kate Johnson are the design team of Dresser Johnson. They have designed custom typefaces, exhibition graphics, books, illustrations and pictograms for a wide-range of clients. Their clients include The Museum of Modern Art, Columbia University, NBC Universal, Conde Nast, The Smithsonian Museum and many more. You may have some work by Dresser Johnson in your medicine cabinet. They recently redesigned the logo for the Band-Aid packages.

June is the one-year anniversary of the Chocolate of the Month Club, and it’s the first new chocolate we’ve made in our soon-to-be-open-to-the-public shop, so I wanted it to be something special.

The cool, freshly renovated shop (a little more than a month ago it was a dank and dusty laundromat!) inspires calm and creativity, and I spent a quiet afternoon recently playing around with different flavor pairings and enjoying working in the kitchen I’d designed and brought to life. This sophisticated bonbon is the result of my experiments, and its freshness is an homage to the exciting newness in the Lagusta’s Luscious world.

A blend of several different permutations of lime—lime extract, ground wild Persian lime, and fresh lime zest—and the deep, mysterious, luxurious, decadent flavor of super high-quality saffron is folded into a vegan milk chocolate ganache filling. The ganache is lighter than the dark chocolate ganache in our truffles, which shows off the light, bright flavors well. This smooth filling is piped into a cacao pod-shaped chocolate shell, reminding us of the specialness of our pal theobroma cacao.

Club members will receive two boxes of Saffron and Wild Lime Bonbons.

We’ve had a fantastic first year of the Chocolate of the Month Club, and look forward to many more. Thanks for your support!

Change your bookmarks (bluestockingbonbons.com will direct you to the new site though)!

Behold the splendor!

I thought I’d run through the most notable changes that affect your Lagusta’s Luscious choco-buying experience here.

While we’re at it, would you like to see a photo of me in my party frock during our grand opening party last weekend? Why, don’t mind if I do!

Great new things about shipping:

First of all and most new: All orders will be packed with ice packs and insulated cool wrap until October. For this reason, you might initially think shipping charges are higher, but actually they are cheaper (because PayPal, our old system, was wonky.). Of course, if you used to order chocolates without ordering ice packs, which I never ever recommend, unless it’s winter and you live on the East Coast, your shipping will be higher. But your chocolates will actually arrive in an edible condition, which I personally think is a rather salient and important factor.

Now, what if you live in, say, California, and want to add an extra ice pack to your order? You still can. But…not right now. We’re working on it! Please know, however, that if you order more than 4 boxes of chocolates we will include at least 2 ice packs. We’ll keep including them proportionally with your order—we’ve got your back!

You can also still choose from Priority Mail (1-5 days, generally 2-3 days) and Express Mail (1-2 days, generally overnight). I highly recommend that all orders West of the Rockies use Express Mail in the summer climes.

I’ve tested the shipping prices/options a million times, but there is a chance a weight could be set up wrong for a product or something could just get wonky for no reason whatsoever, so please—if you think your shipping costs are bizarre, email me at lagusta@lagustasluscious.com before or after you place your order (a refund is easy to do, don’t freak out if you’ve already ordered). In general, an order of two boxes of chocolates shipping to the East Coast in the summertime (with the included [hey, and reusable!] ice pack) should cost around $10. Obviously it will be a bit more the more West you go. There is a slight price break for the more you order. Ordering one chocolate bar will cost the same to ship as ordering three, because the PO charges us the same. Just FYI.

Another cool thing is that you now have the option to order over the website if you live in New Paltz (or nearby, or will be visiting NP, etc.), and you can pick up at the shop. Just click “Store Pickup, Walk In.” as your shipping option. You’ll get a confirmation email when your order is ready, and then you can pop in. No shipping costs, of course! This is great for when you don’t want to play roulette with what we have on hand in the shop. Sometimes you just need a box of Vulvas, ya dig?

Great new things about GREAT NEW PRODUCTS:

The most decadent new option is The Bluestocking Bonbons collection (ooh la la)! What a gift!Sixty-two chocolates! Wrapped in our glorious full-color eco-friendly boxes and wrapping paper, beribboned with our compostable ribbon, and cheaper than buying each of the boxes individually! If you can imagine a better gift for a Women’s Studies graduation, doula or midwife certification, V-day, International Women’s Day, or just to celebrate the a great feminist in your life, I’d like to know about it (yeah, ending the patriarchy would be pretty good too. But this is CHOCOLATE!).

The new site is much easier for me (Lagusta! Speaking of: is now a good time to mention that you might be pronouncing my name wrong? It’s totally cool, it happens, but just FYI, it has a “gus” in the middle, not a “goo.” There’s no story behind it, I don’t speak Spanish (unfortunately), it’s not a nom de chef. My parents met at Woodstock. That’s the kind of name you get with parents like that…) to add new products to, so keep on the lookout for new things popping up now and then. Also easy to do are: SALES! Yeah!

And of course:

The August 2011 Chocolate of the Month. Please give a warm welcome to Heathen Toffee! For all you godless heathens out there, I present a traditional English toffee made with organic and fair-trade sugar, studded with toasted organic almonds, enrobed in our (organic and fair-trade, of course) decadent 60% dark chocolate. 6 ounces of it! This is a serious box of seriously tasty sweet stuff.